Locket having a plurality of enclosed folding sections



Oct. 21, 1958 E. s. DONLE LOGKET HAVING A PLURALITY 0F ENCLOSED FOLDING SECTIONS Filed Aug. 28. 1953 INVENTOR ATTORNEY United States Patent LOCKET HAVING A PLURALITY OF ENCLOSED FOLDING SECTIONS Edwin S. Donle, Cranston, R. I., assignor to Cor-o, inc, a corporation of Rhode Island Application August 28, 1953, Serial No. 377,109

2 Claims. (Cl. 63-19) The present invention relates to the jewelry art, and has particular reference to a novel construction for a locket.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a book-type locket having inwardly folding sections and a hook-type clasp, whereby an ornamental locket of compact form is obtained.

Another object of the invention is to provide a folding locket construction which has case sections and folding sections and hinge connections for the inwardly folding sections, whereby the hinge. parts are concealed when the locket is closed.

A further object of the invention is to provide novel shapes for stamped-out blanks which form the locket case and the inwardly folding locket sections, whereby the parts are readily stamped and quickly assembled.

With the above and other objects and advantageous features in view, the invention consists of a novel arrangement of parts more fully disclosed in the detailed description following, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and more specifically defined in the claims appended thereto.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an illustrative embodiment of the invention, the parts being in closed relation; Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the locket of Fig. 1, the parts being in open relation;

Fig. 3 is a front elevation of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged sectional detail on the line 55 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is an exploded view of the blanks and associated parts for the assembly of Fig. 3; v

Fig. 7 is a plan view of an inner frame for a folding section;

Fig. 8 is a plan view of an inner frame for a case section; and

Fig. 9 is an enlarged section on the line 9-9 of Fig. 8.

It has been found desirable to provide a compact folding locket of book-type, with two hingedly connected case sections, each case section having an inwardly folding section hinged thereto. I have therefore devised a construction in which the hinge connections between the case sections and their inwardly folding sections are positioned interiorly of the case parts, whereby these hinge connections are concealed when the locket is closed, and I have devised novel stamping blanks whereby the number of the parts is small and the resulting assembly is simple and is quickly accomplished.

Referring to the drawings, the novel locket 10 illustrated in the figures shows a preferred embodiment of the invention, and includes two case sections 11, 12 and two folding sections 13, 14 of rectangular cupped shape, the case sections being hingedly connected together and the folding sections being hingedly connected to the case sections as hereinafter described.

The case section 11 has a bottom wall 15, upper and tooth 23 centrally positioned in the recess; the side Wall 19 has three spaced hinge rolls 24, 25 and 26.

The case section 12 has a bottom wall 27, upper and lower walls 28, 29, and side walls 30, 31, the edges of the upper and lower walls being slightly bent outwardly as shown in Fig. 1. The upper wall 28 has an integral loop 3?. through which a chain or other supporting element may pass, the loop 32 being bent perpendicular to the upper wall as shown in Fig. 1. The side wall 30 has two spaced hinge rolls 33, 34, and the side wall 31' has its edge bent inwardly and has a central recess 35, two hinge rolls 36, 37 at each side thereof, and a latch roll 38 centrally positioned in the recess 35, to swingingly receive the cross rod of a latch 39 which has a slot 40 for snap engagement with the catch tooth 23. The hinge rolls of the two case sections interlock as shown in Fig. 3, to receive a hinge pin 41.

The folding section 13 is adapted to fold into the case section 11 and has a bottom wall 42 and narrow top, bottom and side Walls 43, 44, 45 and 46, the side wall 46 having a central recess 47 with two spaced hinge rolls 43, 49 and an intermediate central spring cover 51 the hinge rolls 48, 49 cooperate with the hinge rolls 21, 27. of case section 11 to receive a hinge pin 51, a coil spring 52 being mounted on the hinge pin 51 and being concealed by the spring cover 50. It is preferred to slightly indent the bottom wall 42 as indicated at 53 to receive the coil spring 52 and one coil spring end, the other end of the coil spring engaging the side wall 18 of case section 11.

The folding section 14 is adapted to seat into the case section 12 and is similar in construction to the folding section 13, but in reverse, andhas a bottom wall 54, and narrow top, bottom and side walls 55, 56, 57 and 58, the side wall 57 having a central recess 59 with two spaced hinge rolls 60, 61 and an intermediate spring cover 62; the hinge rolls 60, 61 cooperate with the hinge rolls 36, 37 of case section 12 to receive a hinge pin 63 which has a coil spring 64 mounted thereon and concealed by the spring cover 62. The bottom wall 54 is also slightly indented as indicated at 65 to receive the coil spring 64 and one coil spring end, the other end of the coil spring engaging the side wall 31 of the case section 12.

A frame 66, see Fig. 7, is removably seated in each folding section 13, 14, and a frame 67 is removably seated in each case section 11, 12, to permit removable insertion of photographs or the like beneath the frames each frame has an edge flange 68 for snug seating in its section, see Fig. 9, the end walls 46 and 57 being turned slightly to lock the frames in.

As is clearly shown in Fig. 4, the hinge connections between the folding sections and the case sections nest within the folded locket, to be completely concealed and to permit detachable engagement of the latch with the catch tooth. When the latch is disengaged from the catch tooth, the parts open as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, and may be used, if desired, as a miniature open desk photo cabinet, as the open locket will remain upright.

The locket parts are preferably of stamped metal, and the blanks, hinge pins and coil springs for the parts are shown in Fig. 6, the case section blanks being designated 11a and 12a and the folding section blanks 13a and 14a. The blank 1111 has side wall parts 18a, 19a, the side wall 18a having a central recess 20a with two hinge roll projections 21a, 22a and a catch tooth pr0jection 23a, and the side wall portion 19a having three spaced hinge roll projections 24a, 25a and 26a.

The blank 12a has side wall parts 30a, 31a, the side wall portion 30a having spaced hinge roll projections 33a, 34a and the side Wall part 31a having a central recess 35a, two hinge roll projections 36a, 37a and a latch roll projection 38a.

The blank 13a has a side Wall 4611 with a central recess 47a, two spaced hinge roll projections 48a, 49a and a central spring cover projection 5th, the blank 14a has a side wall 56a With a central recess :2, two spaced hinge roll projections 60a, 61a, and an intermediate spring cover projection 62a. The blanks 13a, 14a, respectively have depressions or sunk-in areas 53a and 65a as illustrated, for receiving and seating the spring coil bodies and the outer spring ends to align the spring coil axes with the off-set hinge pin portions as shown in Figs. 4 and 5 of the drawings.

AlthoughI have disclosed a specific embodiment of the invention, it is obvious that changes in the size, shape and arrangement of the parts may be made to comply with different locket designs and requirements, without departing from the spirit or the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A locket construction comprising a pair of case sections, hinge means joining said case sections along the inner edges thereof, means associated with said case sections for latching said case sections in edge-engaging relation in the folded position thereof, folding sections pivotally joined by a hinge along the inner edges thereof to the outer edges of each of said case sections, said folding sections being foldable to lie within the confines of the associated case section, said folding section hinges being located parallel to each other and to said case section hinge means and being movable into adjacent relation with each other when said folding sections are moved to the folded position thereof, said folding section hinges being positioned interiorly of the case section Walls and concealed from view in the closed position of said case sections.

2. A locket construction comprising a pair of case sections, hinge means joining said case sections along the inner edges thereof, spring means associated with said hinge means and normally retaining said case sections in the unfolded position thereof, one of said case s: having a latch on the outer edge thereof, the 0 er case section having a catch on the outer edge thereof and adapted to engage said latch for retaining said case sections in edge-engaging relation in the folded position, each of said case sections having a folding section pivotally connected to the outer edges thereof, a hinge joining each of said folding sections to the associated case section, said hinges being located parallel to each other and to said case section hinge means and being positioned in adjacent relation when said folding sections and said case sections are located in the folded position thereof, said folding section hinges being disposed interiorly of the case section Walls and concealed from view in the closed position of said case sections.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,129,491 Chilson Sept. 6, 1938 2,185,641 Mark Jan. 2, 1940 2,255,999 Kuehner Sept. 16, 1941 2,545,267 Donle Mar. 13, 1951 2,674,842 Hess Apr. 13, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 7,824 Great Britain May 28, 1887 

